When you or a loved one are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, it can be very frightening, and most people cannot help but wonder if the disease is fatal, and how long patients can expect to live. however, there is nothing but good news for families affected by MS. this condition is not a death sentence, and it is very possible to maintain a happy and comfortable lifestyle despite any symptoms.

Understanding how Multiple Sclerosis affects life expectancy is only possible if you know just how the disease is defined, and what it does to the body. when a person is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, lesions are found on the brain. in these lesions, the myelin sheath that protects the neurons is damaged or lost. when this occurs, processes of communication from the brain to the body are slowed down. this is what causes the fatigue, pain, numbness, and tingling sensations. Many different symptoms are attributed to Multiple Sclerosis, and every patient is different.

But when it comes to the vital functions of the body, such as breathing and heartbeat, problems are rarely, if ever, experienced, even in advanced cases in which no medication is supplied to the body. Few medications have any impact on slowing the progression of the disease, however. Most of the time, prescribed medicine is only able to manage symptoms, not the cause, of the disease.

Studies simply show that very few people die from complications of Multiple Sclerosis. Life changes greatly, and a person might not be as independent as they might have liked, but being happy is more than possible. Having a doctor you can trust and access to medications as you need them to ease your symptoms, as well as a good attitude, will make it possible for you to be happy. you probably have a lot of personal escapes that make you feel good, such as meditation, cooking, or writing.

On average, most patients live with Multiple Sclerosis at least 35 years after diagnosis. Many live longer than relatives who do not have the disease. this is especially true if you have good eating habits and get plenty of rest to take a stand against your symptoms. If you have a loved one who is faced with MS, be supportive and encourage a positive, strong attitude. Some might be more affected by living a more dependent life, so make sure that they are given shortcuts to help them cope and still be happy.

In an effort to develop therapeutic remedies for multiple sclerosis, scientists debate two possible interventional approaches – but they’re on opposite sides of the spectrum. Researchers at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine, however, have reached a definitive conclusion as to which approach is correct, putting an end to a long-disputed issue.

Harley Tse, Ph.D., associate professor of immunology and microbiology at WSU’s School of Medicine and resident of West Bloomfield, Mich., whose study was published in the January 2011 edition of the Journal of Neuroimmunology, found that targeting white blood cells of the immune system known as T cells is the effective approach to block the disease in an animal model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Normally, T cells are programmed to attack foreign substances in the body. However, sometimes these T cells attack an essential component of the central nervous system, the protective layer of nerve cells known as the myelin sheath. This causes the symptoms associated with MS, which include tremors, fatigue, memory loss and other problems.

The debate was centered on treatment of the most common form of the disease, the remitting-relapse form, in which attack episodes alternate with periods of remission. Roughly 85 percent of the 2.5 million sufferers of MS worldwide exhibit the remitting-relapse pattern. “Scientists have been trying to understand how and why the relapse cycles occur and to design therapy to delay disease relapses and hence prolong the remission period,” said Tse.

Scientists came up with two conflicting conjectures. some found that the T cells involved in each relapse were different and were directed against different myelin proteins. as such, these T cells are not suitable targets for therapy. Others, however, could not find support for this in their studies. “It was important to resolve this issue because the two models suggested totally different therapeutic approaches,” Tse said.

Studying the possibilities, Tse constructed a special mouse strain to tag the disease-causing T cells and observed that when these marked T cells were eliminated after a relapse, subsequent relapses did not occur.

“Elimination of marked donor T cells could be done after development of the second or the third relapse episodes and each time, no further relapses occurred,” said Tse. “This work is significant because for the first time we are able to definitively establish a cause-and-effect relationship linking the marked T cells to the development of relapses and show unambiguously that it was the same T cells that mediated relapsing cycles. “

“Targeting such disease-causing T cells in MS is definitely a valid therapeutic approach that should be pursued,” Tse added.

Provided by Wayne State University